The Spellcasters
by Kira Dattei
Summary: AU SLASH Koukuya Yamasuke You can live this life or pass on to the next. Remember: not everybody can weigh the world. Longer summary on Profile page. Prologue: The Unique among the special...


I am really excited about this story. I had a dream a few weeks ago and haven't stopped writing details for it since so getting through the prologue and starting on the first chapter is almost a relief. I'm still in the middle of working out background info and certain stats for characters, but I'm overall pleased with how this came out.

So, comments, warnings and disclaimers before we get started: this will be a crossover of seasons 1, 2, and 4. (I can't write S3 to save my life so I'll spare myself the trouble).  
This is an AU with magical properties, but the show will influence a good deal of the enemies I have.  
This story will be SLASH or yaoi. The main pairings will be Kouji/Takuya and Yamato/Daisuke. Other pairings will be around but since my focus will be mainly on Takuya and Daisuke, theirs are the most important.  
The story is mine, but the characters aren't.  
Constructive criticism is welcome and even enouraged. Flames are simply amusing and will not keep me from posting this story, so feel free to brighten my day with one.

I think that's all for now.

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Prologue: Like Never Before**

_The Seekers were born out of the shadows of the world and the people in it._

_The Spellcasters were born to keep the shadows from spreading._

_You have received the power of a Spellcaster. You can live this life or pass on to the next. Don't make your choice based on anything other than what you want. This choice will be open to you for the rest of your life, no matter how brief or far away the end is for you._

_Remember, not everybody can weigh the world._

**I was ten years old when the choice was given to me. It took me a month to decide that I would bear the weight that came with being a Spellcaster, no matter the consequences. Look where it got me...**

Spellcasters control elements and psychic abilities. It's as simple as that. As if to prove the simplicity of Casting's basics, only half a day of training is dedicated to it.

There are ten elements that Spellcasters control: Fire, Water, Light, Darkness, Wind, Earth, Ice, Thunder and Lightning, Wood, and Metal. Each Caster develops spells in one element and no two people are the same in the spells they acquire. Furthermore, only ten spells are acquired for each individual and they have to be found through instinct. The only things that are taught to the newbies are battle tactics, weapons training, survival and endurance strategies, and a handful of neutral talents. In addition to their elemental power, each Caster has a psychic ability that in some manner reflects their mental, psychological, or physical strengths.

Once you get past the basics, things do actually get more complicated. For example, the lifespan of a Spellcaster. With every spell a Caster acquires, at least fifty years are added to their life expectancy. Overall, a Caster who acquires all ten spells can live for five centuries.

**I'm about to hit 100 myself. It doesn't seem like I've been around that long...**

**I was the best of my times. A perfect mission execution record. Five spells acquired and mastered by my second year. Hell, my record is still perfect.**

**Damnit, I wasn't meant for a desk job...**

When a Caster first comes to be trained, they are automatically considered Beginner Rank. Who knew? As Beginners, they aren't expected to do much of anything besides learn. The younger they are, the better. If for no other reason than that they accept what they are learning when their mind is still open to what would be taught as impossible to the rest of the world. Their instincts haven't been dampened by reality so they are more likely to find their first spell all the sooner. As Beginners, they learn everything it takes to be a Caster and how to fight off the Seekers that would be after their lives for as long as they were around.

The Novice Rank is really where the life of a Caster becomes real. A Beginner advances when they acquire their first spell and learn control over it. When the first spell is mastered, the individual becomes aware of their psychic ability and have to master that as well before they are allowed to advance. Basic control over their spell and ability is required because they gain the responsibility of being assigned to missions.

A Novice may be considered a real Caster, but their worth really shines through with how long it takes for them to reach the Rank of Adept. Advancement to Adept is automatic when a third spell is acquired and it is commonly the Rank that Casters stay at for many years. The main reason is that their ability to use the three spells they have is not required to advance so they have to learn it in addition to learning how to manipulate both spells and psychic abilities simultaneously. It is also at this rank that the Caster can help train Beginners as well as lead rescue and tactical missions.

In order for an Adept to advance to Superior, five spells must be acquired and mastered. They also have to send in an appeal to the Elders for their approval and they have to approve it or you stay an Adept. In addition, if there is an Adept that the Elders know have far surpassed the required abilities for a Superior, they will order the Caster to send in their appeal. This generally happens when a Caster doesn't want to have any more responsibilities or is trying to avoid assault missions. Horror stories and all. In addition to having five spells in their arsenal, Superior Ranked Casters also have to have full mastery over their psychic ability, and have to be able to plan and execute assault missions. Furthermore, they can personally train a Beginner through to the Novice Rank.

The Master Rank is the highest rank that all Casters can reach. In order to advance to Master Rank, a Caster must have complete mastery over all ten spells they acquire. While they are generally in charge of guarding the Elders, Masters are also put in control of assault waves. If there are more than three Rank classes - which are groups of 3-6 Casters - assigned to the same mission, a Master is assigned to gather the separate strategies and combine or alter them to become one battle plan.

Then there are the head honchos: the Elders. They are the ten big-heads that run absolutely everything. Between the ten, every detail concerning every single Caster alive, as well as who is a potential Caster - we'll get back to this - at all times. Absolutely everything goes through them, so it's a good thing they are generally chosen because the general population of the Casters saw them as good leaders who instinctively see the whole picture and know when to say no.

**Still don't have that last one down yet. I just try to be as fair as possible to the Casters under my direct authority. Sure, if need be then I'll crack down and they find out why I'm someone the other Elders go out of their way to pacify, but I also remember what it was like for some of those kids. Not everybody is psyched about saving the world and it sucks that they don't really have a choice in the matter anymore once they get their first spell.**

**The only thing to do then is let a Seeker kill them, and that's never as easy as it sounds.**

**After all, Seekers have a thing for playing with their catch for as long as possible.**

Five thousand...

That's it...

There can never be more than five thousand Spellcasters in the world. There can be anything less, but not more.

Seems unfair when you realize that there is no population limit to how many Seekers the Casters have to deal with on the entire planet.

The reason for this is that Spellcasters aren't necessarily born. Well, the people aren't born with the power. Normal people can't handle the power - which is why each spell extends the Caster's lifespan - so there's some sort of spell that nobody can trace or guide or even cast that enters a person's body when they're born and sits there until another Caster dies and their power seeks out a new form, or the potential dies. Then the spell just moves to the next in line.

Fifty potentials is all we get.

It seems like a big difference, and it is but most of the time its not really noticeable. There's only been a few cases where there has been a Seeker strong enough to take down the Caster population so drastically that it's taken years to recover. Considering that a Caster can't even begin to be trained until they turn ten, the wait for the amount of able Casters can be almost unbearable since they still have to continue keeping the Seekers at bay with limited options.

Spellcasting doesn't exactly run in any family, but does tend to run in a specific generation. If one sibling receives the power, there is a high chance for any other siblings to become potentials as well.

**One of the few times Elders are constantly assigning themselves to missions is during the recovery periods. After all, the more powerful Seekers only target Superiors and higher.**

**I was an Adept and had only been a Caster for a year when the last high powered Seeker hit us. Our population dropped to two thousand. It was then that a good percentage of the people I knew at the time received the powers. I guess that happens quite a bit; the prepatory spells seek each other out. My younger sister became one of the Spellcasters then. I think I was more happy than anything. My acceptance of the power meant that my old life had to die and it really hit my sister hard. But if two people of the same family are given the power, they are allowed to tell whoever in their family they choose about the Spellcasters.**

**Sort of a sympathy thing I guess. Losing one child is bad enough and two could become unbearable.**

No matter how many Spellcasters pass through, there have never been two that were exactly alike in spells and psychic capabilities. With the strict records kept of each and every one, this is an unquestionable fact. They are all unique individuals and that isn't just a nice way of saying that they are all the same when you got down to the hard core blunt facts.

**But throughout all of the history of Spellcasters, there has never been such a collection of unique among the unique at one time. Sure there's been an oddball every once in a while so its not completely blowing the Elders away with the strangeness, but those Casters have always been few and far in between.**

**A Fire Elemental that was able to fully master each spell as it was acquired...**

**A Light Elemental whose spells restore the strength of other elements...**

**A Metal Elemental who acquired eight spells in a single day...**

**A Light Elemental with the power to heal Casters and purify Seekers...**

**An Earth Elemental with the skill to heal the entire Spellcaster population of an ailment at the same time...**

**A Thunder Elemental that became an Elder within ten years of becoming a Caster...**

**An Ice Elemental with completely defensive abilities and spells...**

**A Beginner that hasn't acquired any spells but has already fully mastered their psychic ability...**

**A Darkness Elemental who had been born with Seeker powers...**

**An Earth Elemental who has only acquired Summoning spells...**

**A Beginner with the psychic ability to find any falsity in anything...**

**A Wind Elemental with telekinetic powers strong enough to rip a body to pieces...**

**A Thunder Elemental who has acquired spells that cannot be repeated...**

**An Ice Elemental who can tap unrestricted power...**

**Twins that mirror each other so precisely that their spells are the same except for the element used to create them...**

**A Wood Elemental who managed to tap the power of the planet itself...**

**And the only Spellcaster ever to exist who can use two Elements and had developed two psychic abilities...**

_You can live this life or pass on to the next. Don't make your choice based on anything other than what you want. This choice will be open to you for the rest of your life, no matter how brief or far away the end is for you._

_Remember, not everybody can weigh the world._

**I was the last person truly given the option of death. Even I wouldn't have been allowed to die though. The Elders knew that I wasn't like the rest and they needed something special to see the Casters through to recovering their full population.**

**They never would have guessed at how many "something specials" they were about to see come their way.**

**There has never been such an assembly of unique among unique and there never will be again.**

**I don't know how I can be so sure of this, but I just feel it.**

**The world of the Spellcasters and Seekers are about to witness powers they never could have anticipated.**

**The Seekers won't know what hit 'em...**

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With how much this has been mulling around my head, I hope I was able to write it out clear enough. Any suggestions for revision are more than welcome since there's a good chance I will repost the prologue with any details I left out that I want you all to know of right now.

I want to know how many figured out who I was writing in first-person point-of-view. Its sort of a test to my own writing. For any questions you might have, ask away and I'll clarify for you if it's something that I don't want to keep hidden for the moment. Either way, please review and see you next chapter.

**Kimra Dattei**


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